Local elections 2022: Counting for Hamilton's first STV election is under way

Ruahine Albert (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) (right) was one of the Hamilton East residents making a special vote with the help of Governance Adviser Claire Guthrie. Photo / Peter Tiffany

Counting is under way for Hamilton City Council's first election using the STV system.

With low voter turnout throughout the polling period, the council ran a last-ditch campaign - Show Up For Your City - to encourage tardy voters into action.

This morning, from 9am to 12 noon, there were three sites in the city offering drive-through voting, special voting and extra ballot boxes.

A statement from the council at 1.50pm said: Hamiltonians have made good use of their final opportunity to vote in the local government elections.

The three pop-up venues saw hundreds of votes collected, the statement said.

Council's governance and assurance manager, Michelle Hawthorne, said many last-minute special votes were also cast at the city's libraries.

"Voters who visited our drive-through sites appreciated how easy we'd made it to have their say on who should lead our city," she said.

"Hopefully today's showing will help get our vote count closer to that of previous elections."

Earlier, a senior council staffer told the Waikato Herald that as it was the first STV election for the city council, it was difficult to say when the first results would be available.

Hamilton's voter turnout sat at 24.2 per cent yesterday, meaning 26,625 of the 110,183 registered voters have had their say.

At the same time in the 2019 local election, 33.1 per cent of votes had been returned.

HCC comms department staffer Aaron Leaman helped the council out along Boundary Road spreading the word that voting papers could be dropped at the Settlement Centre. Photo / Peter Tiffany

Meanwhile, progress results are in for Waipā, South Waikato, Taupō, Waitomo and Matamata-Piako.

The progress results are based on the counting of about 90 per cent of returned votes and don't include special votes and votes returned today. This means the outcome of the elections may change once all votes have been counted.

The final results will be announced on Thursday, October 13.

According to the progress results, South Waikato's new mayor and first mayor of Māori descent is one-term Putaruru Ward councillor Gary Petley (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Mutunga) with 3264 votes (as at 2pm), compared to Ārama Ngāpō with 2508 votes. Petley replaces Jenny Shattock, who did not stand for re-election.

Waipā's new mayor is two-term councillor Susan O'Regan with 5,541 votes (as at 3pm). Second place goes to previous mayor James (Jim) Mylchreest, with 4,092 votes.

According to the progress results, Matamata-Piako's new mayor is Adrienne Wilcock with 2,950 votes (as at 2pm), closely followed by Stu Husband with 2,907 votes.

Waikato District's new mayor is Jacqui Church with 6066 votes (as at 12pm). She replaces Alan Sanson who just retired from local government.

Ōtorohanga's progress results show that Max Baxter has been re-elected with 1,274 votes. Kit Jeffries has 1,204 votes (as at 3pm).

Thames-Coromandel's progress results show that Len Salt is the district's new mayor with 4265 votes. He replaces Sandra Goudie who didn't seek re-election.

Taupō has re-elected David Trewavas as mayor with 5215 votes (as at 2pm). It will be Trewavas' fourth term.

He said he was overwhelmed to be re-elected.

"It's an honour to be selected to once again represent our beautiful district.

"I'm looking forward to carrying on all the great work that we have under way and to keep working to make this a fantastic place to live for all our community."

John Robertson has been re-elected as mayor of Waitomo with 1146 votes (as at 3pm).